This netbook is quite fast to boot up and handles home use well. Mine was defective, screen flickering with lines and dimming, occasional blackness here and there. Amazon has a great return policy. There is one misleading thing about the add, it says “Windows Office Starter 2010,” this is NOT usable Office, it is just an installed version that needs to be purchased and activated before it can be used. Luckily I had a number laying around and was able to transfer from an old computer no longer in use. If you are thinking of getting this because it already has Microsoft on it you should now that it will cost another $80 to activate the software.

For a complete review of this netbook, see Acer Aspire One AOD270-1410 10.1-Inch Netbook (Espresso Black). The 1824 is actually the one I purchased for myself, and reviewed under the 1410 heading months ago – Amazon only recently started carrying the 3 cell version itself. Other than the battery capacity and about $10 difference in pricing, the two units are the same. This remains a sturdy little classic 10.1″ netbook which should have a vastly improved video driver when Windows 8 is released in a couple of months. The cost of upgrading this unit to Windows 8 is only $15 under the Windows 8 upgrade program – just go to “Windows 8 Upgrade” at the Microsoft website to register for the upgrade. Contrary to early fears, Windows 8 is actually EASIER on processor and system resources than Windows 7, shocking for Microsoft, but great for us.

I’ve used several Acer Netbooks. I bought mine because I needed a low-cost, highly portable PC. I’ve installed the Adobe Suite, Autodesk Inventor, and Autodesk 3ds Max. Yes, it’s as slow as you would expect this CPU to be, but it’s fast compared to my five year old desktop. I love it. It’s small enough that I actually take it with me. I can work on files locally when I need to. It works over Remote Desktop to my server farm. I haven’t found anything it can’t do.